 Jimmy is the 9th grader who seems to have it all. He is smart, athletic, and good-looking to boot. He has a friendly way about him, and so is quite popular with others in the school. He really doesn't like others, and it gets elected to the student council, a place where he can represent his classmates. He is especially interested in changing the hazing practices, where the 9th graders are treated badly for the first month of school by those in the 10th and 11th grades. David, senior class representative, takes him aside for guidance and tells him that he needs to learn from the others in this first year, and that he will then be able to gather the support of others in following years. The intent is clear. He either learns to get along with others on the council, or he gets branded an outsider. He learns from them and eventually gets some effect, or his attempts to do things will be blocked. So what is Jimmy to do? He is just one person, and he is in a group of older and more mature students. He has never been confronted with anything like this before, so he doesn't really answer, except to note that this is unfair. David's answer says it all, yes, it is unfair, but that's the way it is. His thinking provides some answers. Jimmy put forth the effort to get elected and to accomplish things, and the older members of the group are telling him that the cost is much higher than he had anticipated, not because what he would do is that hard, but because he will be opposed. He is being promised conflict if he tries to do anything without the approval of the senior members of the group, and conflict kills performance. He is being told that he is part of the insiders who run things, an us group member, or he is one of them who are subject to that group and what it decides to do. With a start, he realizes that he was not elected by or even with the support of the other members of this council. If they would act to take away his ability to represent the people who elected him, then they are the outsiders. Again, it is performance thinking that helps define his actions. He considers that it is going to cost him his time and effort to achieve the change. That will close off future abuse of the ninth graders. It will take a school rule that anyone who engages in that practice gets called in for it with suspension for repeated violations. He needs to bring people together for this and not just those he directly represents. As he belongs to several clubs and gatherings of students, he also goes to members of upper class and discusses how unfair this hazing is and how it degrades the students who engage in it. He gets general agreement to use their comments before he takes it to a council meeting. He addresses it to each of the tenth and eleventh grade representatives, passing on the comments that indicated that others in their class also find it unacceptable behavior and promises to pass this along to the rest of the student body, that everyone seems to be in agreement that it should be stopped. Jimmy uses his voice as a representative to upset the us and them nature of this council. With performance orientation, he realizes that the people who really hold the power are the ones that the council members are supposed to represent. When those people are in agreement and know that they are agreed, then challenging them will not have a good outcome. The performance thinking shortcut is that corporate membership is always for an external purpose. If you serve the purpose, you will face the consequences, but the power is always in the purpose. If you bring people together for what all of them value, they will always be more effective than the us and them gatherings. If some action really does serve the larger corporate purpose, then it will be beneficial to almost everyone involved. If those acts serve some other purpose, they will raise up conflicts and damage everyone's performance. The school faculty member who serves the parents and assures that the public gets delivery of the value from a teaching effort is going to be effective. The parent who is managing the educational process that benefits their children with publication of the results to friends and neighbors is going to be effective. Any student who takes an increasingly active part in pursuing their own eventual adult effectiveness will be effective in dealing with parents and teachers alike.